HARRISBURG, PA – The Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) will send 30,273 retirees their first cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) pension payments at the end of September after notifying eligible retirees of their increases earlier this month.
Eligible retirees will receive their new COLA payment in September after Gov. Josh Shapiro and the General Assembly approved the measure as part of the Commonwealth’s 2026-27 budget package.
The September payments include retirees’ new COLA-adjusted monthly benefit as well as the retroactive increases for July and August. The COLA, which went into effective July 1, 2026, is for members who retired on or before July 1, 2001.
Collectively, retirees will receive approximately $25.4 million in additional pension benefits in September. Going forward, the COLA will provide approximately $8.46 million in additional pension benefits each month.
On average, eligible retirees will see their monthly pension benefit increase by $279.43, from $1,616.24 before the COLA to $1,895.67 after the adjustment. The median monthly pension payment will increase from $1,505.67 before the COLA to $1,769.74 after the adjustment.
“As soon as we knew the increase was going into effect, our employees worked hard to ensure the cost-of-living adjustment was reflected in eligible members’ monthly pensions in a timely and accurate manner,” said Uri Monson, PSERS Executive Director. “This work reflects our commitment to serving our members and helping to provide the retirement security they earned while educating generations of students across the Commonwealth.”
In October, members will receive another letter from PSERS explaining their new monthly COLA-adjusted benefit without the retroactive payments. The following timeline outlines the remaining communication and payment schedule.
Week of Oct. 12: Eligible retirees will receive a letter detailing the amount of their October payment. The October amount will be lower than the September payment because it will not include the July and August retroactive amounts.
End of October: Eligible retirees will receive their October payment, reflecting the new COLA-adjusted monthly benefit they will receive going forward.
The COLA adjustment is also reflected in PSERS’ legislative district maps, which provides information on membership and benefit payment data across Pennsylvania.
The COLA is expected to provide about $104 million in additional pension benefits during the 2026-27 fiscal year in addition to the approximately $7.7 billion in pension benefits PSERS members already receive annually.
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About the Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System
PSERS, founded in 1917, began operations in 1919 to oversee a statewide defined benefit pension plan for public school employees. PSERS' role expanded upon the passage of Act 5 of 2017 to include oversight of two new benefit options consisting of defined benefit and defined contribution (DC) components and a stand-alone DC plan. As of June 30, 2025, PSERS had a total net position of about $83.7 billion and a membership of about 262,000 active, 255,000 annuitants and beneficiaries, and 26,000 vested inactive members.